Gene Kochanowsky wrote:Jason R. Johnston wrote:If "low cost" is your main criteria, this sort of thing would be fine...but then why buy an Ursa?
Perhaps because for what it is, it is low cost?
Not really. Sure, compared to an Alexa...but, if $7000 is a lot of money to someone, then an Ursa might as well have the same price tag as an Alexa.
So, you go spend $7000 on a new camera (and by "you" I mean an imaginary protagonist). But, you didn't also think about how much media and batteries and storage and processing cost. Total cost of the entire package, starting from scratch, might wind up being twice the price of just the camera. So, you got the camera, but you don't have the additional ~$5000 for the other bits you need to make it work properly. So you start cutting corners. Sure, you can make it work until you can afford something better, and I can see that attitude with cages, shoulder rigs, remote controls, and other peripherals, but not things like reels and juice. And that's assuming you have the glass already, or can procure it.
It's like those dudes that got tired of waiting for the BMCC and announced they'd go buy a used Red One on ebay for $8000. Sure, that's great, but what about the other $10000 in peripherals and computer hardware you'd need to make it work?
Yeah, but I got a Red One. Well, good for you. Thumbs up, babycakes.
You introduce another cable, another point of contact, another link in the chain, and it only adds to the "just one more thing" that could go wrong, as if cameras and movie-making themselves weren't already precarious enough. Especially on a one-man-crew like I am most of the time. I need everything to just work. If this were a hobby, maybe sure...but as a professional...I just couldn't.
So, like I said, if money is your concern, sure: go for it. But then, there are cameras with cheaper ecosystems than Ursa. BMD Production Camera uses SSDs and Ursa had the same sensor up until recently. There's a few Sony cameras that work just fine. And if you're not shooting raw, and I doubt the OP is, then there are definitely more economic options out there.
Now, if you're looking at Ursa as the first step into a more professional workflow, great, but as I said, you should have budgeted for at least one solid Cfast2 card to go with the initial purchase. Hopefully, the OP has some AC experience and knows how to wrangle cables properly.